New Jersey one of the safest states for teen drivers, study says

With teens getting their drivers licenses during the summer more than any other season, Wallethub has released its report on 2018's "Best and Worst States for Teen Drivers."

Analyst Jill Gonzalez says several key metrics were used to determine the safest and least costly driving environments for American teenagers.

Safety is one key metric used ranging from teen driver fatalities to the share of teen drinking and driving, to crash-related deaths and the quality of roads. The second category Wallethub looked at is driving laws — the provision of teen drivers, graduated driver's license program and occupant protection laws. The final category is economic environment, which includes the cost of speeding tickets, first-time offenses for not wearing seat belts and insurance policy increases.

New Jersey ranks 13th on the list, making it one of the safest states in the nation for teen drivers.

Gonzalez says then number of teen driver fatalities are lower in the Garden State — 7 per 100,000 deaths. That's in part because New Jersey has GDL provisions. It also has texting-while-driving laws and passenger and nighttime restrictions.

New Jersey is also doing well in terms of high cost for speeding and red light tickets. She says the expensive cost of these tickets actually help teen drivers slow down at red or yellow lights.

But it's expensive to have a teen driver, especially when you're adding them onto a parent's policy.

"In New Jersey, you can expect your premium to increase by about 80 percent after you add just one teen driver to your policy. Obviously, that subsides after a few years, but it might be a little bit of a sticker shock at first," says Gonzalez.

New York ranks first on the list. Gonzalez says it has great laws, including the six laws in terms of the graduated driver's license provision. New Jersey actually has four. She says it's also cheaper to add a teen driver onto a parent's policy in New York. There's also great transportation options in the Big Apple, which cut down on teen driving deaths.

It's totally the opposite for New Jersey's other neighbor, Pennsylvania. Gonzalez says it narrowly escaped the bottom 10 on the list, ranking 39th overall. Not many of the GDL provisions are in place in Pennsylvania and because of that, there are more teen driver fatalities.